China Entertainment 1997

February 28, the third day of the Lunar New Year

During this time when most industries are resting, Lu Mo had to work overtime to catch up on manuscripts.

There is no way, who makes him a professional film critic? When "Save Mr. Me" is released, he must not turn a blind eye.

With some resentment, Lu Mo went to the theater, bought movie tickets, and also checked the number of waiting audiences and the theater's film schedule information.

Although it was the third day of the Lunar New Year, there were so many people watching the movie. Not counting those watching the movie in the theater, there were dozens of people waiting outside.

Lu Mo is a frequent visitor to the theater, and he can tell one or two after just a few glances. Although this popularity is not as high as the peak of the Lunar New Year and summer movies, it is much stronger than usual.

Regardless of Cao Xuan's personal appeal, Lu Mo also feels that the release of "Fearless", "Hurricane Rescue" and "Yangtze River No. 7" around the Spring Festival in recent years has indeed cultivated a group of audiences who are accustomed to watching movies during the Spring Festival.

If this continues, it will still be a bit far away from being able to compete with the Lunar New Year and Summer holidays, but it is definitely no problem to separate it as an independent period.

Lu Mo himself made bold calculations, but his view was still conservative. The potential of the Spring Festival stall is not just as simple as being independent from the Lunar New Year stall.

As for the film schedule, there are really not many movies released around the Spring Festival. The only ones that can be rated as high-end are Huang Baiming's "Happy Goat 2009", "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" and Liu Tianwang and Shu Dazui's "Youlong Game" phoenix".

Needless to say, "Family Happiness 2009" is a typical family-friendly Hong Kong movie. It gathers a bunch of celebrities, finds a family or emotional issue, and makes a movie laughing and joking.

Relying on the IP popularity gained by Leslie Cheung and Sing Yee, coupled with a fairly luxurious star cast, the movie may not make a lot of money, but the mainland and Hong Kong combined will definitely make enough money.

This movie was released earlier, it has been almost two weeks now. The box office in the Mainland is about 25 million, and in Hong Kong it is about HK$14 million. If there is no problem in the future, it should be able to increase by about one-third.

In addition to the box office in Malaysia and Singapore, the cumulative total is almost 100 million.

For a low-cost comedy Hong Kong film, it is definitely profitable...

The movie "Family Happiness 2009" seems to have a good lineup, but it is actually the weakest among the movies released during this year's Spring Festival.

"Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", this animated film that countless people regard as a joke, has become the biggest dark horse during the Spring Festival.

It has been released for less than a week, and the box office is approaching 30 million. If this trend continues, it will not be difficult to exceed 100 million.

And you must know that the cost of this movie is only 6 million, and the profit rate has more than doubled.

In this way, Chinese film practitioners who did not pay much attention to animation can feel the potential of animation movies for the first time.

If the early "Havoc in the Sky" and "Baolian Lantern" were the enlightenment for countless animation film practitioners, then this "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Soaring" allowed everyone to clear away their confusion and see the way forward.

Don't look at the popularity of Japanese animation movies. Disney's animations have taken the world by storm, and the box office in China is not low.

But after all, there are no examples of successful Chinese animation movies. It is impossible for practitioners to say that they are not a little confused.

But now "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" is a hit at the box office, proving that animation movies can make money in China.

There’s something going on in this business!

Don’t underestimate this example. The market determines everything. Without this role model and example, the hit animated movies of later generations such as "The Return of the Great Sage", "The Devil Boy Comes to the World" and "Quiba" may no longer exist.

The simplest example is that there were some objections within Fanxing Group when Cao Xuan subsidized Fox Animation.

Nowadays, there are a lot less similar voices. Some people even proposed to grant 10 million yuan to let Fox make an animation movie to try out the water.

However, this was stopped by Cao Xuan.

If you step too far, it will be easy to lose your temper. Animation movies are still relatively IP-hungry. "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Awesome" became a hit because the animation is so popular.

The entire animation and movie market has not been cultivated. If you rush into it rashly, the chance of losing money is extremely high.

Cao Xuan didn't care about losing eighteen million, but he was afraid that Fox Animation would be hit, which would in turn hit the situation that had finally improved.

Therefore, he still hopes that Fox Animation will slowly polish the few animations on hand, improve its technology, and then enter movies at the right time.

"Qin Shi Mingyue", "Zhu Xian", and "Star Change" which has just been launched recently.

"Tomb of the Gods", "Coiling Dragon", "Devil's Law" and the currently serialized "Douluo Dalu" are also included in Fox Animation's follow-up development plan. In addition to the web-based route, there may also be one or two original anime in the future.

However, these animations will not be broadcast on TV stations, but will be launched on the subsequent [Penguin Star Video].

However, Cao Xuan is a little curious. If the "Douluo Dalu" animation is developed by himself and the relevant copyright is in his hands, will there be two, three, four, or five more in the future...

"Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" is not weak in momentum, but it is separated from the viewing audience of Cao Xuan's "Save Mr. Me" and has little influence on each other.

On the contrary, the last "You Long Xi Feng" is a drama film, and it was released at the same time. It can be regarded as a direct competitor of "Saving Mr. Me".

"You Dragon Plays with the Phoenix" is played by Liu Tianwang. Although in the eyes of many people, Liu Tianwang does not seem to have any box office hits and has limited box office appeal.

This is actually misguided. In the early years of the beginning of the century, Liu Tianwang was definitely one of the most popular male stars. Although his overall performance was not outstanding enough, the lower limit was very high. Most movies can make the film studios make money.

It's just that Liu Tianwang is too hard-working, and the scripts he accepts are also high and low. The overall data is not obvious, resulting in low trust among the audience, and from time to time, a big bad movie steals the spotlight.

In comparison, other male stars of the same level either have low-yield works or relatively stable reputations. They occasionally have bad movies, but they are basically short-lived. Few of them are as eye-catching as Liu Tianwang.

But even so, Liu Tianwang's basic base is still stable, with a good script lineup and proper publicity cooperation. Even if it doesn't explode, he can still be in the middle and upper reaches.

"Dragon Plays with the Phoenix" is a typical romance film, all about the supporting scenes of the male and female protagonists. Liu Tianwang has enough appearances, and Shu Dazui can definitely handle it now.

Although this person has always been very controversial and praised by many people, Tianya also has a history of a lot of scandals.

Comparing her "glorious history", most of the Four Danshuang soldiers in 2009 are considered "little white flowers"...

Perhaps Fan Xiaopang's reputation in the original time and space can be fought, but today's Fanxing No. 1 sister does not follow the black and red route. Although there is still controversy, her overall image is still very good, and she is considered to be the best among the four soldiers. Excellent reputation.

The one with the least amount of trouble among these big girls is Hu Jing. She is almost free from any gossip and scandals and is aloof from outsiders. The only "black spot" is that her relationship with Cao Xuan is unclear and she is accused of relying on men to gain power.

Next is Mr. Zhou. Although his love life is relatively chaotic, he has a good personality, strong strength, and is still very popular among passers-by.

Next is the double soldier. There are a lot of scattered black spots, but it's not a big problem.

Fan Xiaopang is currently popular, with a lot of exposure, and a lot of resources. His personality and behavior are a bit flamboyant. Many people can't stand it. Even if he is protected by stars, he will inevitably be jealous.

Li Bingbing is a bit transparent. She is said to be a top star, but her presence is not strong. The outside world has limited favorable impressions of her and not strong dislike for her.

The International Chapter belongs to the rank of passer-by, which means it is not popular.

The situation in Zhao is more complicated. He has high nationality, but in the past two years, he has been intercepted by various parties, his luck has been taken away, his career has not developed smoothly, and several key factors have been exposed, which has led to mixed praise and criticism from the outside world. .

In the original time and space, there was Fatty Fan who took the black and red route and was at the bottom. Now that Fatty is overturned, her own luck has been taken away and she can only compete with the International Chapter.

Although the international chapter is not popular among the public, at least it has no shortage of good works and does not have as many key black spots as hers. In the end, it is slightly better.

However, it is not wrong to say that she is inspirational. There are so many porn stars in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but there are really not many who can put on clothes and fight back into the mainstream, let alone win the Golden Horse Best Actress and multiple awards for Best Supporting Actress.

Putting aside the controversy over character, beauty or ugliness depends on personal taste, but Shu Da Zui still has the strength.

Previously, Shu Dazui was considered a front-line actress in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but she was not ranked in the Mainland. Feng Pants' "If You Are the One" made her famous.

Shu Dazui is from Taiwan Province and has been hanging out in Hong Kong all year round. He is also very capable and has been praised by Hong Kong and Taiwan. He has subsequently won many major productions, including Star Master, Jiang Wen, Hou Xiaoxian and other famous actors. Director's works and Huayi's large-scale productions.

It's just a director. He may have been impressed by the actor's qualities, but Huayi is not stupid. How could he give the cake in his hand to others? It's hard to say whether there is any influence from Hong Kong and Taiwan capital.

After all, no matter how popular Shu Dazui is, the big flowers in the Mainland are no different. Even the new generation of flowers are not unable to keep an eye on them.

But no matter what, with the right timing and good luck, Shu Dazui became one of the very few Hong Kong and Taiwan actresses of her generation who can compete with the big flowers from the mainland.

If he hadn't been involved in the turmoil between Zhen Zhuzhu and Zhao Wenzhuo in 2013, which caused his popularity to plummet, his career would probably have reached a higher level.

In the entertainment circles of Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are severely disconnected in later generations, Shu Dazui is likely to be the last glory of a Hong Kong and Taiwan actress in the film field.

At least the 80s and 90s generations have little hope. I wonder if Wenqi, the post-00s generation who has been given high hopes, can break this shackles...

Liu Tianwang + the popular Shu Dazui, the supporting role is Zhang Hanyu, who just defeated Huang Bo and won the Golden Horse Best Actor with "Assembly Number". The lineup is still good, and there is also the famous Hong Kong director Liu Weiqiang.

As for the actors in "Save My Mister", apart from Cao Xuan, the only one who can fight is Liu Huohua. Although there are two best actors, they are from literary films.

Director Cao Baoping also had no box office success. Although Zhang Ze and Guo Zhenni, who plays Hua Zi's girlfriend, are also famous, they are both TV stars, and Wang Qianyuan is an unknown.

But it doesn't matter. If it comes to fame and box office appeal, Cao Xuan alone can overwhelm the other three, not to mention the gimmick of a live-action adaptation of the movie.

The outside world hyped this time as a battle between kings, but to be honest, Cao Xuan, who had seen many storms and waves, didn't take it to heart at all.

It’s not that Cao Xuan is crazy. Let’s be honest. If Xiangjiang’s artists only talk about box office appeal, even Cheng Long will have to admit defeat in front of him now.

Unless Master Xing comes back to the world, Cao Xuan might take a high look. Unless others form a clique and add famous directors or high-quality scripts to help, that's the way it is.

This time, it is because the subject matter of Cao Xuan may not be pleasing to the eye, so it can be compared. If it is a commercial film, it is purely self-inflicted.

He even suspected that this was a draft that was bought by the crew of "You Long Xi Feng" to try to gain popularity with him.

Lu Mo felt the same way. He couldn't say who his fans were, but Cao Xuan's box office results were obvious.

Not talking about the total global box office, Cao Xuan's cumulative box office in the mainland alone has exceeded 2.2 billion.

And all of them are starring movies, the worst ones are double male leads. The box office performance in the mainland is almost unique. There are only a few in the industry that can compete with him at the box office, but there is certainly no Liu Tianwang who does not have outstanding box office performance.

However, as a professional film critic, Lu Mo still bought two tickets respectively, intending to watch them all and evaluate them objectively.

Maybe Cao Xuan will overturn!

With this mentality, Lu Mo took the lead in entering the theater of "Saving Mr. My Life".

There is no nonsense at all. The movie starts with Mr. Wu, played by Cao Xuan, coming out of the bar with the producer, meeting fans for a photo, and then being caught by Hua Zi pretending to be a policeman.

It is worth mentioning that the actor who plays the role of this producer is the producer of the crew of "Save Mr. Me", and he plays his true character.

There is no nonsense in the movie. After a few arguments, he was caught and put in the car.

But in fact, in reality, Wu Ruofu and the producer (who was also his friend) discovered something was wrong at that time, and even fought directly with the kidnapper, and finally forced the kidnapper to pull out a gun. Wu Ruofu, who had served as a soldier, knew that it was a real gun and was afraid that something would happen. Follow along.

The movie does this mainly for the sake of the plot, so it weakens the position of the producer.

This kind of opening also allows the movie to firmly grasp the audience from the beginning.

After that, the film changes to a narrative, and then to the interrogation scene of Huazi being arrested after the incident. The two timelines after the incident are used to narrate the story, and they are constantly interspersed, and finally find a timeline node and reach a consensus.

The director and post-production team discussed this editing mode for a long time before deciding on it.

The main reason is that the single narrative rhythm is a bit slow and there are no surprises. The audience can guess with their eyes closed that the hostages are kidnapped, the robbers go to get the ransom, they are caught by the police, interrogated, and rescued.

The interlude editing disrupts the rhythm and raises the audience's expectations. The interrogation scenes can also create a confrontation, heighten the tension, and restore the entire incident from multiple perspectives.

Lu Mo saw the advantages at a glance, but there are advantages and disadvantages to inserting narration. If the editing is good, it means controlling the rhythm of the film. If the editing is not good, the plot will be messed up, and the movie will suffer a few points if it is not bad.

As a film critic who likes to tease out plot lines, Lu Mo ignored the narrative cuts and began to organize the plot according to the timeline.

Huazi, an aspiring gangster with a strong anti-social personality, once committed a crime and was imprisoned. After being released from prison, he gathered several accomplices and started a kidnapping and extortion business.

These people are extremely shady, they specifically pick luxury cars to kill, kidnap people, and then kill them immediately after getting the ransom.

We have done several cases before, and all the hostages were killed except for one, Xiao Du. Because he claimed to have no money, he was imprisoned for the time being without receiving the ransom. Mr. My is the new fat sheep.

As a well-known star in the country, Huazi naturally wanted to make a fortune from Mr. Wu.

My husband was willing to spend money to eliminate the disaster, but what he was afraid of was that the kidnappers would take the money and break the bonds, so he kept trying to deal with the kidnappers. Huazi also wanted to get more money, so he coaxed my husband into saying that he would take the money and let me go.

During this period, the police also got the news, immediately opened a case for investigation, and identified the suspect through various visits. They were ready to use the opportunity of collecting ransom to catch the suspect, find the place of detention, and rescue the hostages.

All three parties are fighting for wits and courage, the hostages and the kidnappers, the kidnappers and the police, and the strong and the weak are constantly changing.

It was obviously a somewhat boring hostage rescue case, but it managed to capture the tension and excitement that many action scenes cannot bring.

This is largely due to the outstanding performance of the actors, the cunning and cunning of the kidnapper played by Wang Qianyuan, and the state of being kidnapped on thin ice created by Cao Xuan and Zhang Ze.

The confrontation between the two sides gave the audience a great deal of emotion, and they could not help but worry about the hostages.

I couldn't even help but imagine what I would do if I was kidnapped, fearing the cruelty of the kidnappers.

Lu Mo himself added two words in bold and emphasis at the end of the movie summary in advance - [Reality].

In most similar plots in the past, many people can perform the kidnapper's brutality and killing without batting an eye, but few people can accurately grasp the relevant state of the hostages. Even emotions such as fear are mostly superficial.

Cao Xuan's performance is very restrained, just like Mr. Wu in the movie, suppressing his inner fear and constantly calmly negotiating and even persuading the kidnappers. Hope to find a way to survive, but in the end it becomes more and more desperate.

This kind of suppressed emotion conveyed did not decrease because of Cao Xuan's restraint, but became stronger and more profound and real than simple fear.

The vast majority of people may not be so emotionally exposed when encountering this kind of situation, and the crying and fear of complete collapse does not apply to everyone.

On the contrary, in this kind of "calm and restrained" semi-collapse, those with exposed emotions can find a sense of empathy, and those with strong psychological quality can also empathize with it, and thus follow the details of Mr. My eyes, expressions, and movements to understand the heart of the character.

"These scenes are incredible."

Lu Mo's eyes became brighter and brighter as he looked at it. In the movie "Save Mr. My Life", Cao Xuan showed very little or even no acting skills.

But there is thunder in the silent place. The more simple and ordinary the performance, the more shocking it is, because you will forget about Cao Xuan and focus all your attention on Mr. Wu, as if you are really watching a real person. The star who was tied up.

Lu Mo has not watched all of Cao Xuan's movies, but the ones he has the highest personal evaluation of are "When Men Are in Love", "New World" and "New Police Story".

Among them, "New World", which was rated the highest by the outside world, had the lowest impression on him. In his opinion, Li Zicheng's character was too restrained. Although Cao Xuan's eye scene also reflected the complexity of this character, the plot of the movie itself gave more points. Heavy.

"When Men Fall in Love" and "New Police Story" tested Cao Xuan's acting skills more.

In the former, Cao Xuan's acting skills are still a bit green, but he uses sincerity and aura to make a low-level gangster flesh and blood.

The crying scene where they look at each other is the pinnacle, and has even been included in the classic scenes of Chinese film history.

The latter, a crazy and evil performance, is actually more of a show of skill.

Cao Xuan used all the acting skills he had mastered at that time, supplemented by some of the characteristics of the major villains, and finally created a chilling super villain named Ah Xuan. Even in Hong Kong movies where there are many classic villains, he is very good at it. .

Lu Mo likes these two roles the most and thinks they are the pinnacle of Cao Xuan's acting skills.

As for other movies such as "Painted Skin" and "Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff", they are all regular performances, or they may be unique, but they are not amazing.

But this time in "Save Mr. My Life", Lu Mo saw another performance state of Cao Xuan. He didn't know if Cao Xuan tried the experiential style, but he felt different from the previous roles.

If you explain it forcefully, it feels a bit like returning to nature, but it's not particularly similar. To say it's superb is a bit exaggerated.

Lu Mo thought about it for a long time and finally wrote his own evaluation in the notebook——

[For the first time, I saw in Cao Xuan the master state of his master Li Xuejian, who is as skillful as a mountain and as stable as a mountain]

After watching a movie, Lu Mo didn't even pay attention to the "You Long Xi Feng" that he had bought a ticket for, and rushed home to write.

I kept coming up with ideas on the way, and even turned on my phone to record some of my thoughts just to avoid losing my inspiration.

When he got home, Lu Mo didn't even eat. He went straight to his study and spent an entire afternoon writing a movie review of nearly 10,000 words.

Putting aside about 1/3 of the non-spoiler plot analysis and related background introduction, the rest of the chapter basically focuses on the actors’ acting skills.

The first person to praise was Wang Qianyuan. He felt that the other party's performance was very good. If Cao Xuan hadn't performed so well, he would have voted for Wang Qianyuan without hesitation.

The most powerful scene in the whole movie is undoubtedly the scene at the end when the mother visits the prisoner and the gangster sheds tears. Even if he hates this character in his heart, he can't help but feel sad about it.

This is also one of the four most touching scenes of Lu Mo in "Saving Mr. My Life".

The first scene is a scene where my husband and Xiao Du are cuddling together, and my husband sings "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky" to him.

According to Wu Ruofu himself, he and Xiao Du sang a lot of songs together at that time, among which the most popular one was "Joker" by Liu Tianwang and the other was "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky" by Cao Xuan.

Two versions were filmed at that time, and in the end, "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky" was chosen because of Cao Xuan's starring role.

The second scene is of my husband being sent on the road by a few boys and his throat was choked with chains.

That was a real stranglehold. Although certain protective measures were taken, Cao Xuan was so strangled that his face turned red and he almost rolled his eyes. The effect was extremely shocking.

There is also a scene where Mr. Wu was escorted into the police car after he was rescued. The policeman played by Wu Ruofu opposite looked at him quietly.

This close-up shot is actually very meaningful. To a certain extent, it is Wu Ruofu asking about his original "self", which can also be regarded as a kind of healing and farewell.

It is worth mentioning that at this time in the movie, my husband didn’t speak much, and he was in a state of escaping from death, with lingering fears.

This is also because in the movie, he was rescued when he was almost strangled, which is considered a detour from the gate of hell. It is normal for him to have big psychological fluctuations.

In reality, when Wu Ruofu was rescued, the kidnappers had not yet taken action and did not tell him that his death was imminent, so his psychological fluctuations were not as great as in the movie. He was in a very high-spirited state and kept talking to the police in the police car.

Many viewers watched the original version of Liu Huohua's Policeman and asked my husband jokingly if he often encountered this kind of situation when making movies. They felt that the policeman couldn't speak. Isn't this a stab in the heart?

In fact, this is the real dialogue at that time, almost 1:1 restoration, but the film art processing and the protagonist's state are different, which makes it seem a bit out of place.

After praising Wang Qianyuan, Lu Mo praised Liu Huohua for acting out a real policeman's state. Zhang Ze was also praised. Although he didn't have many opportunities to perform, he played an outstanding role in cooperating with Cao Xuan and deserved a lot of credit.

It is also worth mentioning that Guo Zhenni, who plays the Chinese heroine, is rebellious, stubborn and a bit infatuated. Guo Zhenni picked several qualities of this character very accurately.

This made Lu Mo, who had no impression of this artist at first, remember this slim girl with heroic and charming features for the first time, and even boldly made a prediction.

The two most popular little flowers in Fanxing, Liu Tianxian has not yet left the position of a vase, and Da Mi Mi is half-weight. They have acted in a lot of roles, but their acting skills have not made any significant progress.

In the future, the person who can carry the acting reputation of starry actresses may be this low-key and quiet Guo Zhenni.

Starry actresses are famous for their popularity, and several of them can be said to be half-popular, but when it comes to acting, the only ones who really stand out are Hu Jing and Yang Xue. Fan Xiaopang used to be half of them, but now they can barely count as one.

As a leading entertainment film and television company in the industry, it is impossible to only cultivate stars without capable actors.

In terms of fame and popularity, it is difficult for Guo Zhenni to compare with Damimi and Liu Tianxian. Taking the route of acting as a strong actor may be a way out.

Several actors used about 3,000 words, and for the rest of the space, Lu Mo used multiple angles to play Cao Xuan in a fancy way.

The words used were so exaggerated and disgusting that even Cao Xuan's fans might have thought that this guy was getting paid.

That night, Lu Mo's film review appeared on Mtime.com and Weibo, with a title that seemed a bit sensational to outsiders.

"There will be no suspense about this year's Golden Horse Best Actor. Let us cheer for the birth of the first Chinese-language triple Golden Horse Best Actor."

————

ps: This chapter says it has been restored. Has anyone watched Liu Tianxian's new drama? Is it good?

Friendly recommendation of the book "Wangfu", I just want to be a rich second generation who just eats and waits for death. If you are interested, you can read it.